Born Chesterfield, Derbyshire. After Cambridge he was an English Teacher and Head of Department in South Yorkshire. Became a full time writer in 1976. He was Young Writers' Tutor at the Royal Court Theatre from 1981-1984. In the 1990s he also tutored a dozen promising young playwrights at the National Theatre Studio, without destroying their careers.
Stephen is currently the Royal Literary Fund Academic Writer in Residence at the University of Kent at Chatham.
Read some of his biographical jottings and thoughts on the vocation of a writer -
- 1 The roar of the greasepaint
- 2 Who are you writing for?
- 3 You can't keep the author out
- 4 Why I write
- 5 Bumping into God in Kent
- 6 Making it up
- 7 Block it out
- 8 My previous life
- 9 The Hermit's Tale
- 10 Madame Ovary, Part 1
- 11 Madame Ovary, Part 2
- 12 Gap years
- 13 The ventriloquist
- 14 Mystery Stories